The Accident Aftermath
Everything was light and blurry, but it was still the middle of the road.
Jessica opened her eyes and picked her head up from the ground. She quickly sat up and looked for bruises, scratches, and cuts. There were none.
She swore that she had just been thrown onto the ground, but there was nothing in sight to prove her theory. Everything looked too foggy anyway.
She and her three friends had just been in a car accident. It’s been half an hour since the actual crash, and now, it seems that the surroundings have been cleared out. Jessica was alone, and the car was nowhere to be found.
She called out her friends’ names in despair. “Callie!? Grace!? Annie!?” There was no reply.
Jessica stood up. She tried to remember what had happened, but the impact of the crash affected her ability to think clearly. There was also the blood that had rushed to her head by standing up too fast.
Through the fuzziness, the road looked calm. Jessica tried to recall what time it was. She tried to find her phone within her pockets, but she left it in the car for charging. She started walking, hoping she would find her friends and the car.
A bright light appeared from a distance. Still feeling woozy after the accident, her immediate instinct wasn’t to get off the road. She didn’t even know that she was on the road. She didn’t know it was a car as well, for she thought it might have been a flashlight.
The car was in her path, and Jessica felt too weak to run. She put her arms up, alerting the driver she was there. At that time, she closed her eyes and prayed the driver would see her. She had just been in an accident, escaping death.
At least that’s what she thought.
The driver of the car did not slow down, and instead, it drove through her slim body. Jessica opened her eyes slightly, just as the car was inside of her. She couldn’t help but let out an echoing scream.
She watched as the car continued on to its destination without delay, not knowing that it had just passed through the ghost of a teenage girl.
Jessica just stood there, perplexed. Then she heard footsteps against the rocky gravel.
“Jessica, I can explain,” said the person. It was Callie, Jessica’s best friend. She was also in the car during the crash.
Jessica and Callie ran towards each other and hugged. Callie did not go through her body, which she was confused about too.
“Callie! Where were you?”
“I was in the middle of the woods. So many plants, ugh. Anyway, I know what happened to us.”
“Yeah, we were in a car accident.” Jessica started to put it together. The accident mixed with the fogginess and car going through her. “Did we die?” she asked, trembling.
Callie looked down and exhaled. “You and I have.”
“How?!” Jessica cried. She dropped to her knees and let out large cries. She was only 18. She didn’t want to be dead. She wanted a husband, kids, and grow old with them.
“It’s pretty obvious that we died because of the crash. Look, I’m really sad too, Jess. I don’t want to be dead either. I wanted to live long and get married. But God has reasons for people’s death.”
Jessica wiped her eyes with her sleeves and took gasping breaths. “Well, if you’re so sad, then why aren’t you kneeling on the ground, crying like I am?”
“I wasn’t afraid of death like you. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I definitely didn’t expect it to happen like this. But I accept it.”
“Why aren’t you angry? Wouldn’t you have been happier to live the way you wanted to live?”
Callie backed away from Jessica and closed her eyes. She tried to stay strong, as she would do in stressful or heartbreaking situations.
“I remember when we were younger and talking about the future. I remember you saying you wanted to live to 100.”
Callie turned around and crossed her arms, trying to keep in the waterworks. But Jessica continued to tell her the reality of her situation. “You said you wanted, um, 3 kids. Do you remember? I do. Two boys, one girl. The boys were going to be named Daniel and Adam, right? And the girl. Oh God, what were you going to name your daughter?”
Callie knelt to the ground and started to sob. “Her name was going to be Sara!” she said as she dried her eyes.
Jessica went over to Callie and rubbed her back, telling her that everything was going to be alright. But what did she know? Callie knew more about death and acceptance than anyone Jessica knew, even herself. How would she know that everything was going to be alright? She didn’t even know what SHE was going to do now. They were just two dead girls that had their life cut way too short.
After a while of sobbing, Callie got up and told Jessica that they had to accept their fates and think about the future.
A thought had come to Jessica’s mind. “Wait! If we died, why aren’t we in Heaven?”
“God gives us time to make up our mistakes before we go to heaven. Right now, I believe we are in purgatory.”
Jessica looked around. “Wait, are Grace and Annie around? Have you seen them? ANNIE? GRACE? ARE YOU IN PURAGATORY TOO?”
Callie half-smiled. “They can’t hear you. I found them and did the same thing. I tried to hug them, but my arms went right through them. They’re alive.”
“Well lucky them,” Jessica replied bitterly, putting back the thought of why they died and Annie and Grace survived. Jessica always put the most important question first. “You’re Catholic, Callie, right? How do we get out of this puragatory?”
“It’s purgatory.”
“Yeah, whatever. How do we go to heaven?”
“We have to make up for our sins. I don’t know exactly how though.”
“Then how are we supposed to make up for them.”
Callie shrugged her shoulders. “God has ways. He might use them.”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked, hoping Callie would reveal some godly tips.
“I’m not sure. It’s what my mom told me. She told me, ‘God wants us to be with him. He would never try to hinder us from eternal life.’ ” Then she remembered her poor mother. When she would get the news that her daughter was deceased, she would be heartbroken. So would Jessica’s mom. Everyone that knew those girls would be grieve-stricken by the news of their deaths.
Callie didn’t feel like crying anymore. She swallowed hard and continued. “So don’t worry. He will use whatever ways he can use to help us within the years we wander around this place.”
“Yeah. Wait, did you say YEARS?”
